Chapter 6: Consulting the Oracle

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I watched out of the cockpit of the Invisible Plane as Diana disappeared from sight.  Some people call me fearless.  They are fools.  Fear is my constant companion, but I do not let it control me.  I use it.  Fear fuels every blow I throw; it gives me the strength to get up again when I am knocked down.  I would use this fear too.

I turned back to the display.  At this rate, I would be in New York in minutes.  Suddenly,

"...hear me?  Oracle to Batman, can you hear me?"

"Oracle, this is Batman.  Report."

"Batman, thank god!  Are you OK? When you went off the air, I was...."

"Oracle, report."

"Yes sir."  Not her usual teasing tone; she sounded like she meant it.  She paused for a moment as if to gather her thoughts.  That wasn't like her either.  I frowned.

"Communications went blooey.  I couldn't reach J'onn.  I couldn't activate our back-up warning system either, but it came on a few minutes ago.  Your doing?"

"Affirmative."

"Then the Watchtower went.  You saw?"

"Affirmative."

"Well, then I got worried.  When I couldn't reach anybody any other way, I started dialing."

"You WHAT?"  I had lost control, I realized.  I was bellowing.  I recalled my mantra and took a calming breath.  "You know how easily phone calls can be traced."

"Don't try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Bats," Barbara replied flippantly, "I've got it covered.  I set it up long ago for my own operations.  Anyone trying to trace these calls will find each one came from a different pay phone.  In Star City."  That was more her usual style.  Good.

"I went down the list.  I struck out the first time: the JSA had left on an urgent mission minutes earlier.  You... know what that probably means."

She couldn't see me, but I nodded anyway.  More bad news.

"And Jakeem Williams has gone missing."

Jakeem Williams controlled the mystic Thunderbolt.  He was twelve years old and lived with his aunt.  I could think of sixteen different ways to take him out before he could use the Thunderbolt to protect himself.  Presumably, Luthor had come up with one of his own.

"Did you activate his protocol?"

Barbara sighed.  "Yeah, I didn't like it but I did it."  She paused before continuing, "However, I was able to pass the warning on to Zatanna, Atom, Steel, …."

She rattled off an impressive list, ending with, "and all of our group, of course.  Except Huntress."  Now her voice was tense.  "I couldn't get thru to her."

Knowing the difficult relations between the two women, I wished Dick would learn to keep it in his pants.  "I'm sure you did your best."

"Of course I did my best!  What, you think I'd hang her out to dry because little Dickie lives up to his name?  Is that what you think of me?"

The outburst caught us both by surprise.  Calmly, I replied, "Continue your report, Oracle."

"Uh, yeah."  She took a deep breath.  "Sorry.  I didn't mean that, it's just I ... I've been going crazy, not knowing what's going on, completely out of the loop.  I've had to fall back on CNN for a clue.  God, how can ordinary people put up with the drivel that passes for news on TV?  They claim the Capitol has been attacked.  First it was terrorists, then they said super villains and someone has mentioned rogue superheroes.  And there's a rumor Luthor's been killed."

"I think you can interpret that as well as I."

She chuckled weakly.  "Yeah, I guess so.  Oh," her voice regained some of its usual sparkle, "Operation Stalking Horse is a success."

"Oh?"  She had given that name to a scam we set up.  I knew Luthor wanted to take me out of the game and the best way to do that was to uncover my real identity.  So I planted evidence to point him towards others.  Not just one other.  Luthor might kill one person.  Instead I planted evidence pointing to a dozen prominent Gothamites.  The sort of people who could not disappear without raising a fuss.

"Once the warning system came on, there was no point to phoning up more superheroes, so I switched over to the list of stalking horses.  As it were."

That was reckless, foolhardy, unnecessary....  I clamped my jaw shut on my words and swallowed the sudden spurt of panic her blithe statement triggered.  A suspicion that had been growing in my mind suddenly crystallized.  Since she was shot, Barbara had developed her own ways to control and use her fear.  She regularly handled earth-shaking emergencies with complete composure.  This was not like her.

I remembered my own fears and how easily I lost control.  I remembered Diana.  She was the most fearless person I know.  She must feel fear, she is human.  Or close enough, anyway.  But, as far as I could tell, she simply ignored it.  Yet I had seen her show more fear today than in any half dozen JLA missions.

Barbara continued, "The first three calls were all answered by humorless FBI types very interested in my connection with the person in question.  I stopped after that.  I figured there was no point in taking unnecessary risks."

I bit down hard on my tongue.  When I could speak again, I said quietly, "Oracle, if you combined Scarecrow's fear stimulation with the Mad Hatter's mind control technology...."

She gasped.  "You think they're broadcasting fear into our minds?  It would have to be omni directional, though.  They're broadcasting fear into everyone's mind?"

"We know both of them are working for Luthor.  He wants people afraid."

"He wants them afraid of us," Barbara objected.

"Once he has them afraid, he will direct the fear towards us.  That is the point of the attack on the Capitol."

"That makes sense.  Maybe I'm not going crazy after all."  The relief was clear in her voice.  "I'll have to dig out our files on both Crane and Tetch and ...."

"Later.  First, how did you reestablish communications?"

"Oh, I'm stealing bandwidth off the military communications satellites.  The only way they can shut us down now, is to shut down their own communications."  She chuckled.  "Of course, if they figure out what I'm doing, they can listen in; but we already upgraded our encryption in preparation for this brouhaha, so I really doubt they could make anything of it."

"You are not using any JLA comm codes or procedures, are you?"

"No, boss," she responded dryly, "I'm following orders.  Which means I can only connect with family members until the comlinks are reprogrammed."

"Good.  I'm certain now that all the JLA systems have been compromised."

"Gee, what makes you think that?  The radioactive crater where your clubhouse should be?"

I started putting together everything she had accomplished.  Suddenly suspicious, I asked, "Are you at the secure location?"

"I'm leaving shortly," she replied breezily.

"Now," I commanded.

"There are still a few things I need to do first."

"Oracle," I rasped, jaw clenched.  Then, in a carefully calm voice, I started again.  "Oracle, if we lose you, we lose our communications, our ability to coordinate and the bulk of our intelligence gathering capability."

I paused to let that sink in.  "We underestimated... I underestimated Luthor.  I underestimated the lengths he would go to.  Right now, he's beating us.  Beating us?  He's walking all over us."

Oracle said nothing, but I knew she was nodding in reluctant agreement.

I went on, "We can still make the plan work.  We have a secure base in Atlantis and enough of the key players are still free.  But to make it work, we need the support only you can provide.  If we lose you, we lose our chance.  If we lose you, Luthor wins."

"J'onn...."

"We can't count on J'onn.  When he went off-line, he was under attack.  The situation..." I forced down the lump in my throat.  "...was desperate.  We can't count on his survival."

I heard her muffled sob.

"Go Oracle.  Go now."

She sighed in defeat.  "I'll be out of communications again for about an hour.  Anything you need before then?"

I could think of dozens of questions I urgently needed answers to, but not urgently enough to justify delaying her even a second.

"No."

"Okay, I'm gone.  Br...Batman, be careful.  We can't afford to lose you either."

She couldn't see me, but I nodded anyway.